OSU regents approve funding for daily shuttle

<br>STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) _ Regents governing Oklahoma State University have approved funding for a daily shuttle that would ferry students from Oklahoma State's main campus in Stillwater to its campus

Saturday, April 28th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) _ Regents governing Oklahoma State University have approved funding for a daily shuttle that would ferry students from Oklahoma State's main campus in Stillwater to its campus in Tulsa.

The Board of Regents for the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College approved the service and a $320,000 purchase of two air conditioned, 50-seat buses during a meeting in Stillwater on Friday.

Federal transportation grants will cover about 80 percent of the purchase, OSU-Tulsa President Gary Trennepohl said. The OSU-Tulsa campus will pay $100,000 a year from its general fund to the Stillwater campus to cover leasing the shuttles and for operations.

``Basically, they'll make four trips a day each,'' Trennepohl said. ``The discussion on having some sort of transportation between Stillwater and Tulsa goes back to my getting a lot of comments from faculty and students saying it would be great to have some sort of shuttle service to get back and forth.''

Up to 20 percent of OSU-Tulsa's students travel between the two cities, a study conducted last year showed. Trennepohl said he's not prepared to predict ridership.

``Right now, with all indications we're seeing, our problem may be how we allocate seats rather than filling up the buses,'' he said.

Shuttle service should be made available in the late afternoon and evening hours because about 20 faculty drive from Stillwater to teach in Tulsa, Trennepohl said.

The shuttles will be better than typical public transit vehicles, he said. They will have fold-down table trays with data ports and overhead lights for students and faculty to use for studying on the 140-mile round trips.

Trennepohl would like to get the service started by the start of the fall semester in August. He said faculty will ride for free. Prices will be set later for students.

``We'll be looking at some sort of cost recovery ... but it won't be too expensive,'' he said.